


Wipe Out

by ToukoTai



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: F/M, Surfer AU, Yorkalina, over coming trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-20
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-05-02 11:33:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5246780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToukoTai/pseuds/ToukoTai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>York loves the ocean almost as much as he loves Carolina. It's shame he hasn't been able to set foot in the water since his accident.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wipe Out

**Author's Note:**

> written for a friend of mine on tumblr who loves yorkalina and has been going through a rough patch.
> 
>  
> 
> [soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbmbDIV7bq0)

York wiggled his toes, feeling the grains of sand tickling the bottom of his feet. It was hot enough to be horrible, except that the sea breeze kept the worst of the stagnant heat away. And York was smart enough to sit under the shade offered by the few beach trees, instead of right out in the blazing sun. Raising a hand, he scanned the waves.

North and South hadn’t even made it into the water just yet. Maine was straddling his board waiting for Wash to catch up. Wash, who Connie was emptying _an entire_ bottle of SPF fifty over. Maine would be waiting there a while, York was sure.

So that was the majority of his friends, leaving only-

“York.”

“Lina!” He tilted his head back to beam up at her. She frowned down at him, teal surfboard tucked under an arm and deep red hair tied back in a ponytail.

“I see you’re missing your board.” A question that wasn’t a question because it was a statement.

“Left it at home.” He acknowledged, voice never dropping in joviality. Carolina’s eyes narrowed and her frown grew more pronounced.

“The doctor cleared you.” She would know because her father was the doctor.

“I thought I’d work on my tan, yanno? Get it nice and even.” Carolina didn’t say anything about the fact that he was sitting as far back from the sea as he could get while still being on the beach, or that he was wearing a loose t-shirt, cargo shorts and everything you wouldn’t wear to tan. Or that he wasn’t in the sun and looked to have no desire to sit in the sun. She didn’t say anything at all.

York was cleared to get back in the water, to surf. His eye was one hundred and ten percent healed.

And he’d never see out of it again.

 

“Today, York?”

“I just remembered I forgot to wear my trunks.” Carolina raised an eyebrow as her gaze settled on his horrendously tacky palm tree sunset board shorts. “My _good_ trunks.”

“Of course.“ She said as dry as the sun scorched beach sand he sat on.

It was hard. Really. York had grown up never a twenty minute walk from the surf. Never without a surfboard at hand. The sound of waves and the feel of his board cutting through the water were the things his dreams were made of.

And now his nightmares too.

 

“You coming or going?”

“Well Maine looks a little more murderous then normal today, think I’ll just stay out of his way.”

“Mmhmm.”

He’d had wipe outs before. Scraped all the skin off his hands on sea rock one time. Still had scars down one leg from the when a rookie crashed his wave and his board.

But.

He’d never lost an eye before.

 

“I brought your board for you.”

“That you did! But I had the most awesome double burger with bacon before coming here and you know what they say about getting in the water after eating.”

Carolina was the best. The very best, better then all the rest. In York’s most humble unbiased opinion at least. She didn’t question him about his newfound aversion to the sea. She just asked the same question, different ways, each day. ‘Are you ready?’ ‘No.’

Carolina never asked him if he was ‘okay’, even in the wake of the accident.

She never pushed him.  
Even the day that her patience snapped, she never pushed.  
Why push when you can pull?

 

York startled, snapping out of his half asleep daze. Carolina had his wrist in a firm grip and he was halfway down the beach before he realized what she was doing.

“Wait! ‘Lina!” Struggling out of her grasp was impossible, for all that she was wet from her jaunt in the waves. She didn’t stop until they were at the water’s edge. When York’s feet locked and he refused to move no matter what. Carolina was already ankle deep in the surf, York had stopped just as the dry sand gave way to the waves.

Carolina looked at him without pity and York felt his breath stop. With the sunlight framing her from behind, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Rays of light catching the drops of water that hadn’t dried off of her skin. Warm green eyes stared back from a glowing tanned face. A ponytail of dark red hair slid over her shoulder like a lava flow, the water swirled and tugged at her bare feet.

Suddenly, following her into the ocean didn’t seem like such a big thing. He’d follow her anywhere. Her hand around his wrist was anchoring, a comfort, a reassurance, instead of a manacle. He took a step and then two. The sun warmed water curled around his ankles but that was secondary to Carolina’s arm around his waist and her lips, tasting faintly of her chapstick, on his.

York’s brain shut down and the next time it boots up, he’s somehow straddling his board watching the others surf, with no real memory of getting there except Carolina’s voice: “You don’t have to surf right away, but I’ll be here when you’re ready.”

Speaking of Carolina, she’s sitting on her board next to him, she glances over at him and smiles at him. A happy smile, happy that he’s here with her, that he trusted her over himself. It makes his stomach flip a little. York can’t help but smile goofily back at her and she laughs. Relieved. A relieved laugh, he must have really worried her.

The sun warms the water around his legs, and the crystal blue green surface disturb only by the waves lets him see all the way to the sandy bottom. Their shadows darkening patches of the sand. Out on the waves, South shrieks at North, chasing him through a tunnel. Further from where he and Carolina float, Wash is getting his ass splashed by Maine and then gets dragged off his board into the water by a sneak attacking Connie.

York breathes. Why was he scared to come out here again? His accident has never been so far from his mind.  
He starts a pick up line and Carolina pushes him off his board before he can even get halfway through.

There’s a thread of panic as his body hits the water and goes down. He stays under, scared that if he breaks the surface he’ll see _tip of his board heading for his eye_.

But his board is right above him, not moving, right next to Carolina and York calms. The water wraps around him, warm from the sunlight. His dead eye doesn’t hurt, though the saltwater stings the scars somewhat. It’s a world of green under the surface, with Carolina’s legs in the water idly waving in the water as she waited for him.

It’s easy to grab her leg and yank her into the water. She falls in, red hair trailing her into the ocean.

If Ariel is a princess then Carolina is warrior queen, was the thought that raced through York’s mind. She grabs him by his shirt and drags him close. Green eyes even more pronounced in the water, as they narrow, York’s smile widening in response.

He blinks and they’re kissing again under the water. The taste of salt and water overwhelm the chapstick from earlier.

Fuck, why hadn’t they ever thought to do this before? York spares ten seconds to lament the lost time. Carolina’s legs kick, powerful, smooth movements that bring them up. They break the surface, and York laughs and breathes and laughs until his chest hurts and Carolina’s smiling so fondly at him and it feels like the last shadows of his accident have been literally blown out of the water.

“We have to do that again.” He tells her breathless, she reaches out and runs a hand through his spiky wet hair, play slaps his cheek.

“Get on the board again and we’ll talk.” She says, wet eyelashes blinking against the drops of ocean water and sun.

“You’re beautiful. _So_ beautiful.” A slow lean in with one last, lingering kiss. Her forehead rests on his, and York. Well. He can’t help himself. “You can fondle me under the water anytime.”

She dunks him without a word.

He rides his first wave after the accident the next day, to the cheering of his friends and Carolina’s proud, fond smile.


End file.
